.007 (originally subtitled The Story of an American Locomotive) is a short story by Rudyard Kipling. It is a story in which steam locomotives are characters (“.007” is the serial number of the protagonist), somewhat like the later, more well-known tales of Thomas the Tank Engine. The story first appeared in Scribner’s Magazine in August 1897, and was collected with other Kipling stories in The Day’s Work (1898).

The story is sometimes mentioned speculatively as one of many possible inspirations for 007, the code number of Ian Fleming’s fictional detective James Bond, but no connection is known.

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) was a British author and poet, born in India, and best known today for his children’s books, including The Jungle Book (1894), The Second Jungle Book (1895), Just So Stories (1902), and Puck of Pook’s Hill (1906); his novel, Kim (1901); his poems, including Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), and “If—” (1895); and his many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888) and the collections Life’s Handicap (1891), The Day’s Work (1898), and Plain Tales from the Hills (1888). He is regarded as a major “innovator in the art of the short story”;[1]his children’s books are enduring classics of children’s literature; and his best work speaks to a versatile and luminous narrative gift.